Ángel Crespo facts for kids

Ángel Crespo was a very important Spanish poet and translator. He was born on July 18, 1926, in Alcolea de Calatrava, Spain, and passed away on December 12, 1995, in Barcelona. He wrote many books of poetry and also translated works by famous writers from other languages into Spanish.

Who Was Ángel Crespo?

Ángel Crespo wrote over thirty books of poetry. He also published more than twenty books of translations. He translated works by famous writers like Dante, Petrarch, Fernando Pessoa, and Eugénio de Andrade. He also wrote many books about literary criticism, which is the study and evaluation of literature.

One of Spain's most respected awards for translators, the Premio de Traducción Ángel Crespo, was named after him. This shows how important his work as a translator was.

Early Life and Challenges

Crespo grew up in the La Mancha region of Spain. Early in his career, he was connected with a literary group called Postism.

He faced difficulties under the Francoist State in Spain. He signed a petition to protest the unfair treatment of miners in Asturias. Because of this, he was seen as an opponent of the government. He then took part in secret activities against the government. Eventually, he was forced to leave Spain and live in other countries. He lived with his wife, Pilar Gómez Bedate, in places like Sweden and Puerto Rico. She was also a translator and a professor. He returned to Spain in the 1980s.

His Unique Poetic Style

Victor García de la Concha, a professor and director of the Royal Spanish Academy, said that Ángel Crespo had a very strong and lasting voice in Spanish poetry.

Crespo's work often had a surreal style. This means his poems explored dream-like or unusual ideas. He was also deeply interested in nature and classic literature. Some of his best work was in forms called aphorisms and prose poems. An aphorism is a short, clever saying that expresses a general truth. A prose poem is a poem written in the style of prose, without line breaks.

In 1993, he received a major award called the Premio Nacional a la Obra de un Traductor. This award recognized his entire body of work as a translator.

Selected Works

• Poemas en Prosa: 1965-1994 (Ediciones Igitur, 1998)
• La Realidad Entera (Galaxia Gutenberg/Círculo de Lectores, 2005 )

See also

In Spanish: Ángel Crespo para niños